Senegalese-born R&B star Akon (Aliaune Thiam) long cast himself as a champion of African development. In 2018 he announced a $6 billion “Akon City” – a futuristic, solar-powered metropolis along Senegal’s Atlantic coast – to be funded by his own digital token, Akoin. The project was backed at the highest levels: media reports noted that Senegal’s president (Macky Sall) even gifted Akon some 2,000 acres for the site. Akon told investors that blockchain could be a “savior for Africa,” allowing people to bypass corrupt systems and control their own finances. These grand promises – billed as a real-life “Wakanda” city anchored by a new cryptocurrency – drew international attention and early support from officials and backers.

1. June 2018: Akon unveils “Akon City” and the Akoin cryptocurrency at the Cannes Lions festival. The singer says the token will “advance [Africans] independent of government” and fund the city’s construction.
2. 2019: Akon raises funds via a “Token of Appreciation” campaign. Donors receive up to four Akoin tokens per dollar contributed. The plan is to convert these tokens into Akoin once the crypto launches.
3. Aug 2020: Akon claims to have secured $2 billion of the needed $6 billion and lays a ceremonial first stone in Mbodiène, a fishing village ~100 km south of Dakar. He promises construction will begin in 2021.
4. Late 2020: The Akoin token finally goes live on exchanges. Almost immediately, early investors dump their holdings and the price crashes by over 90%, following the familiar pattern of many ICO-era tokens. (By mid-2024, Akoin is worth only fractions of a cent.)
5. 2021–2022: Despite viral renderings of skyscrapers and malls, construction never really gets underway. Contractors announced large investor pledges (including $4 billion from Kenyan financier Julius Mwale), but no buildings materialize. By late 2022, Akon is still claiming the project is “100,000% moving,” but independent reporters find only the outline of the welcome center and minimal site work.
6. 2023: Senegal’s tourism development agency (SAPCO) issues a formal ultimatum: start building by mid-year or forfeit 90% of the land. No new construction appears. Local officials begin publicly questioning when (or if) the project will ever happen.
7. July 2025: The dream is dead. In a statement to the press, Senegal’s authorities cancel Akon City outright. Most of the 136 hectares are reclaimed by the state, and the government shifts to a more modest development – a $1.2 billion coastal resort expected to create ~15,000 jobs. Akon reportedly retains just eight hectares (for use in a scaled-down tourism plan) and says he will pursue “more realistic” projects.

Mbodiène, Senegal (2021). One year after laying a symbolic cornerstone, the Akon City site remained an empty expanse of fields and bush. Locals recall Akon’s early visits with excitement, but by 2021 even his supporters were frustrated. An AFP journalist reported that nothing had been built aside from a rural youth center that Akon himself had paid for. Mbodiène’s village chief nonetheless told Le Monde he “still believe[s] in [Akon]… even if it’s a bit slow,” noting only small amenities (a basketball court, stadium fencing) as evidence of progress. In reality, multiple timelines slipped: promised roads, a hospital, university and solar plant remained unstarted. Government auditors and reporters eventually concluded that years of deadlines had passed with almost no work to show.

Akoin Token: From Promise to Pitfall

Vision: Akon pitched Akoin as a Pan-African digital currency to address Africa’s banking woes – inflation, lack of credit access and reliance on foreign currency. He famously complained that the West African CFA franc “has no value” abroad, vowing “we have to have our own currency” for Senegal and beyond. At launch Akon said Akoin would let people “advance themselves” economically and bypass governments that previously “kept [them] down”. The coin was even supposed to be spendable for local goods and services within Akon City and (eventually) across Africa.

• Fundraising: In 2019 Akon’s team sold “Tokens of Appreciation” to donors (up to 4 Akoin per dollar). These were to convert into Akoin after launch. However, after the pre-sale ended in 2019 only a fraction of promised refunds or conversions were ever delivered. By late 2021 some investors were still unpaid.
• Regulatory Issues: Senegal (like most countries) maintained a state monopoly on currency. The Central Bank of West African States publicly warned that Akoin could not be legal tender in Senegal. In effect, Akoin could trade only on foreign crypto markets – a speculative gamble from day one.
• Broken Promises: Akoin’s roadmap listed an ambitious suite of features – a custom “Akoin Wallet,” integration with mobile phone minutes, micro-loans, and a blockchain app marketplace for African entrepreneurs. None of this infrastructure was ever built or launched. In interviews Akon admitted he “let the geeks figure it out,” but to users the token remained a mere symbol with no real utility.
• Price Collapse: When Akoin went public on exchanges in November 2020, veteran insiders sold their stakes immediately. The token’s price plummeted by over 90% in hours. One analysis showed it fell from about $0.15 at launch to just $0.00035 within a few months. By early 2024 the coin had been delisted from most trading platforms and was essentially worthless.
• Investor Fallout: Ordinary backers who had bought Akoin at lofty pre-sale “special” prices were left holding bags of a defunct token. Akon’s team reported no ongoing “repayment” scheme; indeed, they declined media requests about crypto refunds. A U.S. financier even sued Akon over an unpaid $4 million debt tied to project financing, settling part of the claim in 2022.

Accusations of Scam and Pump-and-Dump

The sharp collapse of Akoin – like the stall of the city itself – drew scorn and conspiracy theories. Local media openly wondered if Akon City was a Ponzi scheme in disguise. One Senegalese news site bluntly asked whether the entire venture was a scam to collect donations. Critics note the familiar pattern: a charismatic figure sells a grand vision, early insiders profit on token sales, and latecomers lose out. One blockchain analyst quipped that Akon City “seems functionally to have been merely the pitch for a crypto offering that failed – leaving an empty site, disappointed locals, and an embarrassed figurehead”.

Not everyone agreed the collapse was deliberate fraud. A former Akon adviser who quit in 2023 told journalists, “There was no personal enrichment or scam,” noting that Akon spent “several million of his own money” on the project. In this view, Akon’s team simply overpromised and ran out of funding pledges. Either way, the result was the same: by 2025 both the city and its coin were defunct, with investigators and investors left to pick up the pieces.

Aftermath and New Directions

By mid-2025 Senegal had officially pulled the plug on the Akon City saga. Tourism officials announced they reclaimed the land and would instead build a conventional coastal resort project (budgeted at ~$1.2 billion, with 15,000 jobs expected) on the site. Akon, according to reports, still holds a small parcel of land and is said to be collaborating on downscaled tourism plans, but his grand “smart city” is over. The superstar has refocused on other ventures – from his Akon Lighting Africa solar charity to real estate and motorsports – but the crypto-urban utopia is gone.

For observers of African development and cryptocurrency, the Akon City episode is a cautionary tale. It underscores the gap between tech-driven hype and on-the-ground reality. Supporters had embraced Akon’s celebrity and high-tech vision, but critics warn that without solid financing and governance, even the most glamorous projects can turn to vapor. As one analyst noted, Akon City followed the same “speculative urbanization” script as many other futuristic city schemes: it drew investors like tourists to a brochure, produced little real infrastructure, and served mainly as a marketing vehicle for an otherwise-failed crypto token. In the end, Akoin joined a long list of boom-and-bust coins – and Akon City joined the wreckage of empty promises.

Sources: Contemporary news reports and analyses including Foreign Policy, Le Monde, BBC, AFP, NDTV, Billionaires.Africa, and others. These detail Akon City’s timeline, Akoin’s performance, and official statements through mid-2025. All cited information is drawn from the public record.